Signs of coronavirus in newborns

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The AAP’s newborn-perinatal Covid-19 registry has info about almost 4000 babies who have been born to mamas with coronavirus in the U.S. since March. Fortunately, none of these babies have died from the virus and most have not had any symptoms. Less than 50 of these babies have tested positive for the virus. Of those babies with symptoms of the virus, the most common are fever, difficulty breathing, cough, low muscle tone, vomiting and diarrhea (similar to symptoms of other viruses in babies, like influenza and RSV). The most important way to protect one’s baby from getting the virus (if one or both parents has the virus) is to wear a mask when you are near your baby, wash your hands before touching your baby, and to breastfeed or provide pumped milk. If a newborn has any of these symptoms, even if there is no known exposure, he or she should be seen by a doctor ASAP.